hectic schedule

I just wanted to put an update in on what my wife & I have been doing for the past week. My life has been very hectic lately. We didn't get to hike any last weekend because I had to work. School started back this week, and I will be very, very busy for the next 4 months between working 2 jobs and my class load. We are not planning any overnight hikes this weekend, but we are going to try to get out and do a day hike at a nearby state park.

Backpacking Equipment

Since we enjoyed ourselves so much last weekend, we are now researching light-weight backpacking equipment. The first item I plan on buying is a tent. I have been looking at several brands and models so far. They are: Eureka Zeus 2EXO , Eureka Apex 2XTA, Kelty Gunnison 2, REI Half Dome 2 & MSR Hubba Hubba . My search criteria has been based on the following factors:

• 3-season (no winter camping here :)
• 2-person (leaning toward one with a little more square footage)
• 2-door / 2-vestibule (lots of room for gear storage, and possibly the dog)
• Light-weight (not a huge factor, as we can split the load between us)
• cost (low to mid $100's if possible. Lets face it, I doubt if I tackle Everest anytime soon in this tent :) We just need something that is durable enough for hiking in the mid-atlantic States).
• breathability (I hate waking up all sticky from condensation buildup).
• factory-sealed seams

Anyone with experience in this, your comments are welcome. My thanks goes out to mrhyker at http://www.MidAtlanticHikes.com. He has been very helpful and friendly in his advise.

Huckleberry Trailhead, Spruce Knob/Seneca Creek Backcountry. 

camp on Seneca Creek. 

Panorama shot of Seneca Creek valley. 

"water slide" on Seneca Creek 

waterfalls on Seneca Creek 

morning coffee on Seneca Creek. 

Seneca Creek Backcountry

Last Saturday my wife and I took an overnight backpacking trip into the Seneca Creek Backcountry in WV. We started our hike at Spruce Knob, 4863 feet above sea level, the highest point in WV. Hiking down the Huckleberry Trail, the first couple of miles we stayed on top of the ridge, with a slight downhill grade. The trail was rather rocky in most places, making it difficult to traverse. The trail alternated between running through small spruce groves and high Alpine like meadows. Close to it's junction with Lumberjack Trail, Huckleberry Trail began to descend more rapidly. We stayed on Huckleberry to it's end, where it meets with High Meadows Trail for a short period before finally reaching the bottom of the valley and linking up with the Seneca Creek Trail. We camped along side Seneca Creek for the evening, with a beautiful view of the falls just upstream from our campsite. We started a small fire that evening (thanks to my wife), and Apollo enjoyed a refreshing swim in the stream. The next morning, we boiled some water out of the stream and refilled our water bottles. We decided to follow the creek up stream for a ways, keeping on Seneca Creek Trail. We had to cross the stream 3 times before finally arriving at Judy Spring. Seneca Creek is definately the most beautiful stream that I have witnessed in the state. Small waterfalls abound, and the surrounding valley is amazing. We hiked out of the valley via Judy Spring Trail, connecting back with Huckleberry Trail, and then back up, up , up to the Knob. Total mileage round trip ~12 miles. Elevation change ~1500 feet. We had a great time, although I believe we carried way to much weight. We need to buy new, lighter gear before our next outing. Pics are coming soon!

EDIT: I thought that I should point out that details for this hike can be obtained at http://www.midatlantichikes.com/id146.html . We elected to deviate from the route the author on this site had mapped out due to several reasons. We skipped the Lumberjack Trail / High Meadows Trail semi-loop due to time constraints, but we plan on returning and hiking this portion someday soon. Also, instead of taking Seneca Creek Trail out of the valley, we only hiked the portion up to Judy Spring Trail, taking it back to Huckleberry Trail and back tracking from there to the knob. If we had stayed on Seneca Creek Trail to it's head, we would've had to walk ~6 miles up forest road 112 to get back to our vehicle.

Panorama shot of Williams River valley 

lower Falls of Hills Creek 

Hills Creek (near the water falls) 

Tea Creek Wilderness 

Waterfall at beginning of Lick Branch Trail, Cranberry Backcountry. 

Pals 

Apollo, our 2 yr old Golden Retreiver. 

First Post

I just created this blog and wanted to put up a quick post. My main intentions for this blog is to use it as a sort of log book that will describe the adventures that my wife & I (and our golden reteiver) get into as we hike and camp in the Appalachian mountains of WV (my wife will probably use this blog to post her views & opinions also). We both love the outdoors, taking our dog on long walks whenever our busy lives allow it. Up to this point, our hiking has been limited to day hikes with tent camping in established campgrounds. I want to (and I believe my wife also wants to, with some reserve & caution) move on to longer overnight hikes in the wilderness (where we actually carry in everything we need for 2 days and camp along the trail). In fact, we are planning one such trip this weekend. We plan on hiking in the Spruce Knob/Seneca Creek Backcountry on a trail that is ~13 miles long. We will split this up into 2 days, walking half the length the first day and camping out that night along the trail. If all goes well, hopefully we will have a good time and love it. Only time will tell....

Last weekend we spent 2 nights camping in the Tea Creek National Forest Service campground. This is located adjacent to the Cranberry Wilderness/Backcountry, one of the most beautiful and remote portions of the State. We took a dayhike in the Cranberry Backcountry that was 8.7 miles long. Our hike started at the Cranberry Bottoms campground, where we hiked up the cranberry trail for ~2 miles. From there we turned left onto the Lick Run trail, going straight uphill for ~2 miles. On top of the ridge, we turned left onto the North-South trail, which stays on top of the ridge before eventually descending the mountain and ending back at the campground. It was a very beautiful walk, but we did get rained on the last hour of the trip. I will put up some photos of the hike when I get a chance.